Crypto Tax - US 2026
Crypto Tax Estimator
Sold or swapped crypto this year? The IRS taxes every trade. Estimate your capital gains tax bill - short-term vs long-term - in seconds. Free, no sign-up.
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1. Nominal APY vs. Real Post-Inflation Yield
A common pitfall in yield farming and staking is prioritizing high nominal APY percentages without factoring in baseline network token inflation. For instance, if a network offers 14% nominal staking rewards but dilutes circulating supply by 10% annually, your real purchasing power expansion is only ~3.6%.
2. Liquid Staking Derivatives (LSTs) & Capital Efficiency
Liquid staking protocols (such as Lido stETH, Rocket Pool rETH, and JitoSOL) allow institutional participants to maintain yield generation while retaining liquidity for DeFi lending and liquidity provision. However, LSTs introduce smart contract and depeg risk that must be modeled into portfolio variance.
How Crypto Tax Works (US)
The IRS taxes crypto as property, not currency. That means every sale, swap, or purchase with crypto is a taxable event — including crypto-to-crypto trades most people assume are tax-free. They are not.
Short-term vs long-term
Hold over a year: long-term capital gains rates (0%, 15% or 20%). Hold under a year: taxed as ordinary income at your marginal rate. On a $20,000 gain, the difference between 24% ordinary and 15% long-term is $1,800 — holding a few extra weeks can literally pay.
What counts as a taxable event
- Selling crypto for fiat
- Swapping one coin for another (yes, really)
- Spending crypto on goods or services
- Receiving staking rewards, airdrops or mining income (taxed as income when received)
The record-keeping problem
With hundreds of trades across exchanges, wallets and DeFi, manual calculation is nearly impossible. That is why crypto tax software exists: it imports your full history and computes every gain, loss and holding period. Our estimator above gives you the rough bill; tools like Koinly or CoinLedger give you the filing-ready report.
Trading crypto on leverage? Compare costs with our forex broker comparison first.
Crypto Tax: Frequently Asked Questions
Is crypto-to-crypto trading taxable?
Yes. In the US every crypto-to-crypto swap is a taxable event - you owe tax on the gain measured in USD at the time of the trade, even though no dollars changed hands.
How long must I hold crypto for long-term rates?
More than one year. Then gains qualify for 0%, 15% or 20% long-term rates instead of your (usually higher) ordinary income rate.
Are staking rewards taxed?
Yes - as ordinary income at their fair market value when you receive them. Selling them later triggers a second taxable event on any further gain.
Can crypto losses offset gains?
Yes. Capital losses offset capital gains, and up to $3,000 of net losses can offset ordinary income per year, with the rest carried forward.
How do I calculate tax on hundreds of trades?
Use crypto tax software that imports your exchange and wallet history automatically. Manual spreadsheets break down fast past a few dozen trades.